Adam wrote: > Ideas wanted, however wacky! > > In my ongoing quest in cheapness, I re-acquired an old, and I mean OLD, > tower. Is there anything useful I could do with it, or is it just good > for parts, if any? It's a 100 MHz i486DX, 420 MB HD, 40 MB RAM, CD-ROM > drive (remember when all that was SOTA?), > How about boat anchor? Actually, I still have a huge tower sitting in the corner of my office that hasn't been powered on in maybe 7 or 8 years. It's got a monster i486 DX2/66 (how's /that/ for blazing speed) and a HDD that's probably under 100MB (Win 3.1 didn't take that much space). I'm not sure if it has more than 640kB of RAM. It was SOTA in 1991 or thereabouts. Want to be out-cheaped? I still have my 1981 vintage IBM PC (First Day Order) with an amazing 8087 coprocessor and two 20MB HDDs! I doubt there's /any/ version of Linux that will run on something that old. I'm wondering if I should hold on to it and sell it as an antique some day. I think the original IBM box cost about $3000, along with $2000 in software and probably a couple thou in HW upgrades. Ah, those were the days.... excuse me, the nurse is telling me it's time for my nap... > Here's the fun part, I hope: If I can get this thing running, what could > I do with it (preferably without putting any money into it)? > You dismissed "firewall". A month or two ago someone talking security said that you need a separate firewall box for Linux. I asked if it was really necessary (after all, /Windows/ can run a firewall on the same box!), as now that I have replaced dialup with cable I'm probably more exposed to attack. I don't recall getting an answer -- I don't want an additional box cluttering up my small office just to run a firewall when I dual boot over to Linux. > Adam >
_______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Jun 4 - Sqeak! and eToys Jul 2 - KVM (Tenative) Aug 6 - Zenos Sep 3 - TBD
